Small Slice

Yesterday, I skipped breakfast, and ended up snacking throughout the morning.  I was disappointed with myself, but by lunch, when I sat down to a lovely salad and bread, I decided to learn from my mistake, instead of beating myself up about it.  This morning, I enjoyed a mini-bagel with an egg, scrambled with basil, red bell pepper, onion and a banana.  I know I'll be fine until lunch. 

Eating this way requires some forethought, and a pantry and fridge full of ingredients.  That is pretty intimidating for a mom like me, with a husband who works long hours and three busy kids.  I spent five dollars on ingredients for my homemade mac and cheese, and I had to laugh, because I could have made boxed mac and cheese for less than a dollar.  Why is it so expensive to cook from scratch?

The truth is, my mac and cheese recipe made enough for two dinners plus a week's worth of lunches for all three kids.  I packed away the leftovers in the freezer, for a day when the kids don't like the dinner I'm preparing, or I need a break from cooking.  How great is that?  You don't get that with your 99 cent box of neon orange mac and cheese.  It didn't even take any more time. 

I had become leery of cooking from scratch for a long while, because the lure of 'easy' and 'quick' and 'cheap' was powerful.  But I'm finding that each of the dinners I've made have taken me about a half-hour to put together.  I spend at least that much time making things from boxes and cans and freezer pouches. 

I took my grocery list to the store and spent about $180 on the things I had listed.  (I didn't shop at Trader Joe's this time... I find that I always save money there, but Safeway is right around the corner, and they have pull-ups.  Yes, my three-and-a-half-year-old is still in pull-ups.  SIgh.)  I expected that this shopping trip would be a week's worth of food.  But I will seriously be getting two weeks (or more for the non-perishables) out of my money.  When I figure that I spend $20 a shot at a fast-food restaurant to feed my family one meal, and cooking at home works out to about $12 a day for the whole family... that quick and easy doesn't sound so great anymore.

"U.S. residents spend more on fast food than they do on movies, books, magazines, newspapers, and videos combined.  Americans paid over $110 billion on burgers, fried chicken, and other fast foods in 2000, compared with $6 billion in 1970."  Will Clower, The Fat Fallacy, page 145

This is all a learning process for me.  I'm already thinking ahead to my menu and shopping list for next week... I'm starting to see that there are many tasty, simple ways to feed my family that don't have to have a brand name or pretty package, and it's exciting.  As my portion sizes continue to shrink, I'm more satisfied by the variety of foods that I'm eating, and looking forward to not only eating the next meal, but preparing it, too.  This is a huge change in my attitude.

One other facet that I haven't discussed is the amount of meat that I am eating.  Says Dr. Will:

"This is the French diet.  So we are going to eat (in most ways) like the French.  Refer to the earlier section on comparing food pyramids of the world.  The least healthy culture chosen (ours) has the highest recommended levels of red meats.

Coincidence?  Maybe, but I'm going with the populations that don't have all our heart problems.

• In The Fat Fallacy diet, limit red meat consumption to approximately one time per certified blue moon, or once every other week, whichever comes first.
• Here's the hierarchy: Eat mostly fish, then chicken, then lean pork, then red meats."            Will Clower, The Fat Fallacy, page 229

We're not big meat eaters, so you'll see that most weeks, we eat a little chicken, a little fish, sometimes some turkey, and the occasional bacon.  But that's pretty much it.  I'll be posting my meals to the photo album over to the left side, and will tackle my first exercise challenge this weekend.  Have a great weekend!